Merry Christmas
by Fleppy85
Summary: Sara isn't a fan of Christmas, she does everything to work and avoid the Christmas party in the lab. But when she gets home, she has her own little Christmas surprise and party and turns her into a big Christmas fan


It was every year the same. People gone nuts about this stupid day. They started to spent all their money on junk, wasted hours of their precious time in shopping centers, looking for things, nobody really wanted or needed. Or they invade in the supermarket to buy more sweets and meat, they could possible eat. It looked like there was a war or a huge natural disaster coming and people tried to prepare for a long time without shopping. And a long time didn't mean in her eyes two days. Most shopping carts looked like this period was around two months. Plus these millions of lights in all colors on houses, trees, bushes even palms. Students, who were desperate for a dollar, dressed up like grandfathers, sat in malls and pretended to be nice to strange children. Bags of cotton were bought and placed in the garden, to make it look white, the dog had to wear horns and some women thought, white wings made them look sexy.

Stupid. Just plain stupid.

Or like other people said: a very merry Christmas.

Sara Sidle wasn't other people, Sara Sidle was more like the Grinch. She hated Christmas, she hated everything, that had to do with it and if anybody ever ask her, she'd sign a petition to cancel Christmas. Nobody cared about the real reason of Christmas anyway.

Like every year she had signed up to work on Christmas and like every year, her boss and her colleagues were happy, that she did so and they could take the day off. There was no family, there was nobody waiting for her at home, thus there was no reason to stay home. And the only person Sara wanted to spend Christmas with, had to work too. Or was away with somebody else than Sara. She wasn't sure about that, but preferred the first version. So there was really no reason for a merry Christmas.

"You look like you were a bad child and Santa brought you nothing than work." Brass teased her when she arrived at her new crime scene. They were in the east of Las Vegas, in a suburb.

"I asked for work, but he forgot to wrap the case up for me in lovely colorful paper. I love colorful paper." That was a plain lie. Two days ago she wanted to punch the crap out of a guy in a bookshop, who spent over five minutes to wrap a book in Christmas paper for a client. Sara, who was in a rush, had needed all her willpower to stay calm and not to kill one or both of them.

"It's not about the paper or the size of the box, it's about the thing what's inside."

"This looks like Santa brought us a body, male, around forty, with a third eye, that doesn't look like the third eye Buddha talked about." Sara's attention got back to the dead body in front of her feet.

"Nothing mystic about his third eye, no. Leo Landris, forty four, worked as a taxi driver. He is here, his taxi is gone."

"Robbed and killed. What a nice surprise of Father Christmas." Sara kneed next to the body. There was no GSR around the wound, whoever shot the weapon, wasn't too close. She guessed, the killer didn't sit next to the victim nor sat he or she on the backseat.

"Thirty eight?" She asked Brass.

"That's my guess."

"There are some traces on the victim, they look like glass. Maybe he was shot through the window, pulled out of the cab and left here. Where is the coroner?"

"It's Christmas, they'll be short-handed and people like to kill each other on days like today. All year around they don't see each other, all year they don't spend time together and suddenly they're all in one room, forced to talk, forced to like each other and they snap. Some of them I can understand. If somebody got me in a room with my ex, told me, I've to spend the evening with her, I'd snap too." Brass buried his hands deep in his pockets. It was cold, too cold to stand around and wait. "I'll talk to the people, maybe somebody saw something, heard something."

"Yeah, a fucking Christmas tree and 'Jingle Bells' barked by a dog after the children choir sang it twenty times. Ho, ho, fucking ho, ho."

"You really love Christmas, Sara, I see that."

"Yeah." She rolled her eyes. So what was the story of this case? Somebody needed a ride? Needed money to buy some presents? Was bored to death and needed some action? Or snapped because Christmas was a crazy event, that made you snap?

When David finally arrived, she had worked the scene around the body, had bagged several pieces of broken glass, found some oil, which she hoped belonged to the taxi and found a cartridge of a .38. Not too bad, but she wanted to get the evidence of the body.

"Sorry I'm late."

"Christmas dinner?"

"Yes, the in-laws are not happy with me."

"They can complain about that to whoever killed him."

"I might send them to him. Or her. Gunshot to the head."

"I found a .38 cartridge, could be the murder weapon."

"I let you know."

"Can you give me some of the glass pieces?"

"Sure." He took her tweezers and dropped some of the glass in the little bag, she handed him.

"There's something else on him." David got something white off the jacket. "What's that?"

"Cotton?"

"His jacket doesn't look like it's torn somewhere."

"It's Christmas, probably the killer dressed up like Santa Claus and this is a piece of his beard. Who would pay attention to Santa today? There are thousands of them in the city and in Vegas, everybody, who looks crazy, does actually look normal."

"You're right on that."

"So we might look for Santa. Brass will love that."

"I bet he never had Santa on the radio."

"It's Vegas, I wouldn't be surprise. We were looking for people, who dressed up like animals, aliens and established a cat and a bird as killers. Nothing seems to be impossible here."

"Beside a Christmas without bodies."

"Yes." She took several photos of the body, checked for some more evidence on the clothes and let David take the body away.

"I put Santa on the radio fifteen minutes ago. So far we've around three dozen Santas. Do you want to talk to all of them?" Brass asked her.

"How man of them miss a little piece of their beard?"

"Very funny. It's not only the beard, it's the wig, there's white fluffy stuff on the clothes too. Plus the possibility that the cotton comes from something else. And if the killer was dressed up like Santa, don't you think, he undressed and walks around like anybody else?"

"Probably."

"The good people around haven't seen or heard anything. The body was found by the man over there, he let his dog out and saw the vic on the street. This is a quiet area, no through traffic, and on a night like today, everybody is home."

"Did the witness know the vic?"

"No. Nobody remembers him or a taxi."

"What a about a slide, pulled by a dozen reindeers? One with shinning red eyes?"

"Nine reindeers."

"Whatever."

"And Rudolph has a red nose and not red eyes." Brass chuckled. How could anybody mistake the famous red nose with red eyes?

"Is this a Christmas lesson?"

"I just correct some major mistakes."

"Great, I go back to the lab and see what the evidence tells me."

"If I find a Santa with a smoking .38 I'll let you know."

"Thanks."

"And if I find a white rabbit, that carries some colorful eggs and a .38 plus has a little bit of it's fur missing, I'll call you too."

"And I'll call animal control and a shrink." Sara was almost sure, he was making fun of her. Was it important how many reindeers Santa had? And if one of them had red eyes or a red nose? After all, they were nothing more than a fairytale.

"Oh god, what happened here?" Sara had problems to close her mouth. Something awful had happened to the CSI lab. Maybe there were terrorists in the building. Or aliens had made their way to Vegas and sucked out all the brains of her colleagues.

"Merry Christmas, Sara." The receptionist had a huge smile on her face.

"Is this still the CSI lab?"

"We've a Christmas celebration later. Brenda made some cookies, there'll be Christmas wine and a lot of chocolate Santa Claus for everybody. We'll start at seven in the morning, don't be late."

"Never." She walked on. Never. Never ever would she go there. Christmas celebration. This was her workplace. She wasn't supposed to celebrate here, she was suppose to work here. There was evidence. Sensible evidence. She didn't want to think about the possibility that somebody might contaminate her evidence with cookie crumbs. Why couldn't people separate private and work life?

"Hey, how is your case?" Greg greeted her when she entered the break room to get a coffee.

"We're looking for Santa Claus as a murderer."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"What did happen?"

"Grandma got run over by a reindeer. You can't convict animals, so we try to get the owner for the death of the old lady." Sara said dead serious.

"Really?"

"Yes, the problem is, we can't find the right Santa. And nobody has seen Rudolph. By the way, did you know he has red eyes now?"

"No."

"If you see a Santa with a red eyed reindeer, give Brass a call. And tell Ecklie I'm working on the petition that this will be the last Christmas until the end of time of human being."

"Why do you hate Christmas so much, Sara?"

"Tell me what's good about it?" She sat down and sipped on her coffee.

"Let's start with, it makes people happy. Did you see all these happy faces in the shopping mall? The eyes of the children shine, they can't wait until Christmas Day, it's their favorite day of the year. Adults come together, don't fight, everybody tries to be nice, gives little gifts to other people. It's a feast of peace, harmony and family. And if you don't like these things, you can think of the original reason why we have Christmas. It's the birthday of Jesus Christ and we celebrate with him."

"Why should I celebrate with somebody I don't know? Didn't know. If he ever existed, he is dead a long time. I don't celebrate the birthday of my great-great-great grandfather, don't even know his name and he was family. So why should I bend over backwards for somebody I've nothing to do with? Who probably never existed."

"Tradition."

"Tradition is something that makes people stuck, stops them from thinking and developing themselves. Tradition is an enemy of science."

"Can't you see anything good in Christmas?"

"No."

"Will you celebrate with us later?"

"Of course. After I've cut off my legs and arms."

"Sara." He sighed. "Don't you have a wish for Christmas?"

"No." That was a lie. She had a wish, but first of all it wasn't his business what she wished for and second, there was no chance, her wish came true. So why waste any time of whining and wishing? She had to live with what she had. A case and evidence.

"The whole shift will be there. If you don't go there to celebrate Christmas, go there to be with your friends."

"Half of the shift is at home, celebrating Christmas."

"The other half would like to see you there. You said you'd go."

"I never said that." She had said, she'd think about it. She thought about it and she didn't want to go there. End of the story.

"You thought about it and for a while it seemed like you would go. What changed your mind?"

Nothing she wanted to talk about.

"I see no point in it."

"The point is to be with your friends. We'll all be there. Brass, Grissom, Nick, Warrick. Even Hodges, Wendy, Mandy, Archie and Bobby. Only Cath and Sofia are missing – and Vartann of course. He has to be with Cath and Lindsey."

"They celebrate Christmas with their families, why don't you force them to this party?"

"Because – like you said – they celebrate with their family. At least Cath and Vartann. There is no reason for them to be here."

"Isn't Sofia with her family too?"

"I heard her mother on the radio, I think she works. If Sofia isn't celebrating with her father alone, she isn't with her family."

"Maybe with her boyfriend." Sara was fishing, she had no idea if that, what she said, was right. She made it up to see, what Greg knew.

"I didn't know she has one."

"I guess so, otherwise she'd be here, wouldn't she?"

"I can remember she said, she had to prepare a special gift for somebody very special. So yes, you'll be right with the boyfriend."

Somebody special. There had been a time when she had been somebody special. At least she had thought so. Probably she was wrong, like so many other times. If Sofia had ever been interested in her, she had destroyed that by being a horrible bitch. The way she had treated the blonde, there was no way, she liked Sara. They worked together, Sofia was polite, but that was all. And she didn't deserve more.

"I've to work on my evidence." She left her cup of coffee unfinished on the table. This wasn't a good topic. The Christmas party had been a bad topic, Sofia and her boyfriend was even worse. She didn't want Greg to see that the idea of Sofia and a boyfriend hurt her. She didn't want to feel his eyes trying to find out what she thought. Felt.

Sara slipped through the door and pressed the button for the freight elevator. When the door opened, she got herself in it and sent herself down. For a moment, she thought of what would happen if she got stuck. If she couldn't open the door of the freight elevator. She had to call for help and needed a really good explanation why she was in here.

When the freight elevator stopped she pushed her hands on the door. Nothing.

"Shit." She rolled her eyes. How did Greg always say: _If you assume bad things, only bad things will happen to you. You need to think positive to experience nice things_. Great. Why did she think of getting stuck? Now she was stuck. She tried again to push the door open. Nothing. Should she really call for help? No, that was too embarrassing. There had to be a way she could get herself out of this. Somehow.

Anyway it wasn't her fault that she was here. It was the fault of her colleagues. If they hadn't planed this stupid Christmas party she wouldn't be here. Or if they'd accept that she didn't want to join them. But no, they had to insist that she joined them, that was why she took the freight elevator to get down in the basement, take the backdoor, creep to her car and take off. It sounded so easy, so good, so perfect. This situation wasn't planed.

Could she call somebody to help her? Was there anybody who wouldn't make her feel like a complete idiot when he or she saw her like this? No. And probably her cell phone wouldn't work here neither.

If she could get something between the two metal boards, she could free herself. Something thin and hard. She got her keys out of her pocket. It was worth a try. She considered which key was less important. She couldn't risk to break the key to the lab, nor to her house or the car. The key to her garage. She got the key between the boards. So far so good. Carefully she turned the key so that the boards were apart – a tiny little bit. Not enough to get her fingers in and push them apart. She needed something bigger.

The only thing she had was her cell phone. She got it out and put it between the boards to turn it. As soon as the space was big enough she got her fingers in, then the hand and finally she could push the boards with both hand apart. She was free.

"And from now on this day will be great! Do you hear me, whoever made me stuck in there because I thought of it? I think positive, it will be a great day from now on! Only good things will happen to me. And don't you dare to give me any more shit."

She made it to her car without anybody crossing her way. That was the good thing about this Christmas party, everybody was upstairs, nobody was in the basement. She stopped her car in front of the building, her condo was in. She was about to leave her car when she changed her mind. It wasn't a wise idea to park here, anybody could see her car, anybody would know, she was home. She started the car again and made a little detour to her garage. Her car was safe here. There were no windows and as soon as the door was closed, nobody could see her car anymore. And if somebody rang her doorbell, she'd ignore it, pretend not to be at home. She didn't want a surprise Christmas breakfast, lunch or dinner. She didn't want any Christmas surprise.

With a smile on her face she opened her front door. So far her positive thinking worked. Very good. No reason to change that. She stopped at the elevator, smiled and took the stairs. Better safe than sorry. This one wasn't that easy to open. A key and her cell phone wouldn't help. And her condo was in the third story. No reason to take the elevator.

Whistling she took the last steps when she stopped. What was that? Was it, what it looked like it was? Did she really have a huge Christmas box in front of her door? Was the positive thinking thing not working anymore? Carefully she eyed the box. It was around one by one by one yard and it stood on wheels. Whoever got this box up to her condo didn't carry it and Sara was glad, the box came with wheels. She knocked on the box. It sounded hollow. An empty box? She tried to lift the box, but couldn't lift it up. No, definitely not empty.

"I really hope this in no…no, wrong: This isn't a practical joke!" Don't think negative, think positive. She unlocked her door and got the box in. It wasn't too heavy to push, so she placed it in her living room.

Time to unwrap her present. How perfectly Christmas like. She had a Christmas box on Christmas Day and she wondered, who brought the box. Was there a delivery service, that worked today? Probably. But who would send her a Christmas present? One, that was this huge? There was nobody. The only people she knew in Las Vegas were her colleagues and this didn't look like it was sent by one of them.

"Okay, time to unwrap my present." She got a knife and cut the tape on top of the box. Slowly she pulled the tape off. Before she could open the box, it got opened itself. A yell escaped her mouth. Her present was alive, it was…ohmygoodness!

"Merry Christmas!"

She wasn't sure if she had a heart attack or a shock. Or both. Or maybe she fell, hit her head and was fantasizing now.

"I think I lost it." Sara mumbled. She had to be crazy. And have a serious eye problem. She saw not only a person with white wings in her living room, coming out of the box, she also knew this person. There was Sofia. Why was she in a box? Why was this box in front of her door? Why wasn't the blonde with her boyfriend? She said she wanted to prepare something for him.

Unable to move, Sara watched Sofia climbing out of the box. Only a few seconds later the blonde stood in front of her and smiled.

"I wish you a merry Christmas, Sara."

"What are you doing…what did you do…why were you…how did you…what is…I thought you're with your boyfriend, the special person, you had to prepare something for."

Sofia grinned, shook her head, pulled Sara in her arms and kissed her softly.

Sara felt like her heart stopped beating for a few seconds only to beat ten times that fast than it did usually after that. Sofia was here. Sofia was in her living room. Sofia…kissed her! And she, Sara, had to get a grip and react. Somehow.

"Who told you that, Sara?" Sofia's lips were only an inch away from Saras, her eyes found Saras and the brunette felt like she would fall any second.

"I…you…Greg said, you had to prepare something for somebody special. Or something like that."

"I did, I had to get myself in a big box to be your Christmas angel."

"But…why me. You…I…we…"

"Yes, Sara. You and I are we."

"You can't stand me."

"Says who?"

"I was a bitch, I was mean and there's no reason why you shouldn't hate me."

"I know a few reasons why I could hate you, but I know more reason why I like you, Sara. I like you very much. There's only one thing I can't stand about you right now."

"What?" Sara was sure she could change that. Sofia had kissed her. She was special to Sofia. Sofia had spent only god knew how many hours in a box to surprise Sara and she…she had said, Sara was somebody special to her. If there was something Sofia didn't like, something she couldn't stand, Sara wanted to do everything to change that.

"You haven't kiss me yet." Sofia smirked. "But I'm willing to give you a second…" The rest of her sentence got washed away in a passionate kiss. Finally Sara was able to react the way, she should. Sofia wanted her to kiss her!

It looked like the positive thinking thing really worked out. Sara doubted, the day could get better than this. There was no way this couldn't be the best Christmas she ever had. She had Sofia in her arms, she kissed and…she should stop thinking and simply enjoy the kiss and the knowledge, Sofia was here with her and she liked Sara. Now Sara felt like celebrating.

There were no candles, no Christmas tree, no colorful Christmas boxes, no cookies, no mistletoe but nevertheless Sara felt like the happiest person a Christmas Day had ever seen. She sighed happily when she saw Sofia in her arms.

"Are you well-rested?" The blonde opened her eyes, feeling that the brunette was awake.

"Yes." Oh dear, she had never been this close to Sofia's blue eyes and Sara had to admit, they looked even more beautiful this close.

"You look quite happy Sara."

"I don't think anybody has ever been this happy on Christmas as I am now."

"How comes?" Sofia teased softly.

"I got a big gift box."

"People say, the good things are in small boxes, they don't need a lot of space. And you never stroke me as somebody, who is only after big presents. Actually I was sure, you don't like Christmas at all."

"I didn't until today."

"So it was worth being stuck in the box."

"I hope it was worth for you."

"What about you?"

"Absolutely. But I still don't understand why you did that. I mean, why…how did you know I…like you?" What Sara wanted to say first was, how did you know I'm in love with you. And she saw in Sofia's eyes, the blonde heard exactly the words, she didn't say.

"You were a bitch at the beginning, no question about that. You gave me a damn hard time in the lab, you let me wait for hours at a crime scene, you were everything but nice and easy to work with. My problem is, I like challenges. You were – you are – a challenge. And after a few months we went on good, we worked perfectly together and had some breakfasts with the other guys. We were always different to the other guys, that made me curious, I wanted to know what is behind this mask, who is the real Sara Sidle. You have no idea how many hours I spent trying to figure you out. I caught myself looking out for you on crime scenes, I found out, I was disappointed when you didn't work my scene, I made detours to see, if you're in the lab. So many crazy things. When Brass offered me to have the Christmas night off, I took the chance. Knowing, you'd work because you don't like Christmas – you made that very clear the last year – I got this box, put it on wheels to make sure you'd open it inside your apartment and not outside and wrapped myself up.

Your face was priceless when I popped out the box."

"I was close to a heart attack!"

"Yes. But there was joy and happiness in your eyes after the first shock was gone. I saw, you liked your present."

"I did. I do." She knew she never got anything better and she doubted, she'd ever get anything better than she got this Christmas. She had Sofia, there was nothing better than that.


End file.
